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Battery PLI beneficiaries seek relief on penalties

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New Delhi: The three beneficiaries selected for the Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) manufacturing program have sought relaxations from the Centre after not meeting the specific scheme deadlines. Slippages make the companies liable to penalties. The three beneficiaries of the ACC Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme are Ola Electric, Rajesh Exports and Reliance Industries.

The Ministry of Heavy Industries is said to have received requests from all three participants. Minister H D Kumaraswamy will now take a call on waiving the penalty and allowing extension to the earlier deadlines. The National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell Battery Storage was launched with a ₹18,100 crore outlay in 2021.

An official said the beneficiaries did not meet the December 2024 milestone. Notices were sent to companies in March 2025. Fresh notices were sent in May as well. According to officials aware of the matter, these penalties are in proportion to investment commitment and expected incentives to be accrued by company.

If penalties are levied, Ola Electric would have to pay ₹12.5 lakh per day from January 1, 2025, until the commitments made by the company under the scheme are met. Reliance Industries-owned RNEL and ACC Energy Storage - which bid as Rajesh Exports - would have to pay ₹5 lakh per day.

Speaking to ET, Rajesh Mehta, the executive chairman of Rajesh Exports said his company has sought because of force majeure. Queries to Reliance and Ola remained unanswered until press time.

Mehta said Rajesh Exports was allotted land by Karnataka toward 2023-end and project implementation started immediately. "As per our own schedule, we were to initiate commercial production by October 2024, before December 2024 deadline. We faced a local farmers' agitation as soon as work started," he said, adding that peaceful possession of the land was received after 19 months with state government's intervention.

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